For the fourth day in a row on Saturday, Coimbatore logged more COVID-19 cases than Chennai — the district saw 3,692 infections, while Chennai recorded 2,705.
Across the State, the number of people testing positive in a day continued to dip, while fatalities stayed high. The State clocked in 30,016 new cases and 486 deaths, taking its tally to 20,39,716 and toll to 23,261.
The number of people discharged after treatment exceeded fresh cases. As many as 31,759 people, including 5,327 in Chennai, were discharged across the State. Presently, 3,10,157 people are under treatment for COVID-19. Chennai’s active caseload dipped from 41,387 on Friday to 38,680 on Saturday, while that of Coimbatore marginally rose from 38,340 to 38,824.
While the daily cases have been steadily declining, there seems to be no reduction in fatalities. Except for three districts — Kallakurichi, Krishnagiri and the Nilgiris — deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in every other district.
Chennai continued to lead the table with 85 deaths. While 49 persons died in Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram recorded 26 deaths. There were 24 deaths in Dindigul and 21 in Tiruvallur. Coimbatore and Tiruppur accounted for 20 deaths each.
About 22% of the deceased were aged 20 to 49. A majority of those who died were in their 60s, followed by people in their 50s — 141 people in their 60s and 106 in their 50s died.
As many as 138 of the deceased did not have co-morbidities.
Among them was a 24-year-old man from Ranipet, who died on May 27 due to COVID-19 pneumonia. A 26-year-old woman from Salem died on May 28 due to COVID-19 pneumonia.
Of the 486 deaths, 305 took place in government hospitals.
Apart from Coimbatore, some other districts in the western region accounted for a significant number of fresh cases — Erode recorded 1,743, while Tiruppur had 1,697 and Salem 1,492. A total of 1,314 people tested positive in Chengalpattu, while Tiruchi and Tiruvallur had 1,099 and 1,072 cases respectively. Daily cases dropped below 1,000 in both Madurai (828) and Kanniyakumari (927).
A total of 1,74,349 samples were tested in the State, taking the total figure to 2,73,38,092.
Vaccine update
A total of 2,66,426 people, including 2,01,212 people aged 18 to 44, were vaccinated on Saturday.
This took the State’s total coverage to 87,16,541.
The vaccination was held in 2,775 sessions. Among others, 45,205 people aged 45 to 59 and 16,782 senior citizens took the jabs.
Till date, 11,68,706 people aged 18 to 44; 31,54,368 aged 45 to 59; and 25,29,108 senior citizens have been vaccinated, besides healthcare workers and frontline workers.